The Importance of Philosophy and Ethics in the Modern World – Clare Dempsey

This year, I completed an AS Level course in Philosophy and Ethics. I found it not only to be personally enriching, but also, something that, when students study, is genuinely a benefit to society. While the lessons were taught in an outstanding way, and students were fascinated with all the lessons had to offer, I am going to spend some time analysing the course itself, and just why I think it’s got so much to offer to the world.

The course ran with separate Philosophy and separate Ethics lessons running simultaneously with two different teachers, so while studying, we were doing one Philosophy and one Ethics topic at the same time. The topics we studied for the Ethics half of the course were Situation Ethics, Utilitarianism, War & Peace, Religion & Morality and Sexual Ethics. For Philosophy, we studied: The Design Argument, The Cosmological Argument, Evil & Suffering, and Miracles.

I think this near 50/50 balance between Philosophy and Ethics is great. While a common misconception of most RE or Philosophy & Ethics courses might be that you merely learn about the existence of God, and what implications that has on the world, you instead look at the perspective of Ethics too, which offers the question “how should I act, and why?” What’s more, the course is by no means entirely theistic, as you thoroughly look at the opinions of non-theistic traditions and atheists, and the scientific perspective is also strongly considered.

In September, we began by running both Situation Ethics and The Design Argument topics at once. Arguably, the two topics don’t have a great deal in common.  However, the contrast was helpful, as it gave a very clear view from the off of the wide range of content in the course. The Design Argument faces much opposition, with many philosophers and particularly scientists offering their own arguments against it – Dawkins, Kant, Hume, just to name a few. However, as Kant wrote, “This proof always deserves to be mentioned with respect.  It is the oldest, the clearest, and the most accordant with the common reason of mankind.” So I find it refreshing that it’s still debated in classrooms and lecture-halls across the world.

Situation Ethics, on the other hand, is very much more of a modern idea.  It thus was something students, frankly, found more personally useful to them. The very fact the idea was devised mostly for a changing world was something we students felt we could personally connect to. Considering this, is it not a value to the world if students are debating different ethical approaches? More than anything, it begs students to think about, not just the consequences of their actions, but, instead, the very root of why they do what they do – their moral fibre. Is this not something young people need to be thinking about today?

In late November, we changed topics, and began to study both Utilitarianism and The Cosmological Argument alongside one another. These were arguably the most stimulating, and highly debated topics that we’d studied throughout the year. Starting with The Cosmological Argument, I found that learning about the various explanations of the origins of the universe – with a mild background knowledge from a GCSE in RE – was something that instilled further curiosity in the class. Soon enough, once a statement such as “Either the universe was made of nothing, or something always existed,” was uttered, there was a flurry of whispers across the class – students wanting to learn more. Utilitarianism had a similar effect, especially seeing as we’d just finished studying Situation Ethics. It was possible to make comparisons between the two as to which ethical approach was better. This further encouraged thought of motives, and what influences people to make the actions they do.  Once more, I feel it’s necessary to ask, is it not good that classrooms are filled with this sort of moral debate and contemplation?

Up next, in the new year through ‘til February, we ran War & Peace simultaneously with Evil & Suffering – these topics evidently go together hand-in-hand, as the nature of war in the modern world is something that leads to suffering, so both these topics can be discussed in relation to each other. In Philosophy, we looked at theodicies that could have been used to justify the apparent unjust evil of war that we were viewing – such as the point that 9 in 10 people who die in wars today are civilians. Suffering, for so many, is a very real thing, and in today’s Globalized society, isn’t it vital to look at what the great minds of the past and present have said of it? No other subject will offer this sort of look at the world, and it’s unique entirely to Philosophy and Ethics.

In March, we were wrapping up the course with our final three topics. While we were studying Miracles in Philosophy, we managed to rattle through the two remaining Ethics topics: Sexual Ethics and Religion and Morality – though I’d like to give Sexual Ethics its own paragraph entirely. In studying Miracles, we mostly were looking at the views of Hume. Who wouldn’t find the works of Hume a marvel? His empirical world-view is something that many students then decided to apply to other areas of the course, such as deciding The Design Argument has no empirical evidence, thus they weren’t willing to accept it. In Religion and Morality, the title is a good indication of the topic. We were further able to analyse what makes something moral, or right. Most famously, we studied the Euthyphro Dilemma – this alone is worth being compulsory for anyone to ponder over.

Finally, comes the Sexual Ethics topic. This overlapped with our Ethics Investigations paper – investigating whether there is equality in the modern world for homosexuals. This in itself is extremely relevant to the ethics and politics of the modern-world at present, particularly with the Coalition wanting to allow homosexuals to exchange vows and have a genuine marriage by the next General Election in 2015, and Barack Obama’s May 9^th statement that states marriage equality “strengthens families”.

Considering how relevant it is to what’s going on in the modern world, why wouldn’t it be a good idea to study Philosophy and Ethics? With social media, there’s a wider platform for individuals to express their views; studying Philosophy and Ethics gives an open-minded attitude towards moral dilemmas, and also to the tolerance of young people in society. As the world becomes more culturally diverse, shouldn’t also the range of issues A Level students today study? This can be achieved through Philosophy and Ethics.

Clare Dempsey

Summer 2012